Angel Beats - Demon Wars
by Tandouji
Summary: Don't think that the story was over when the SSS left the Afterlife! New people enter this strange world and a new looming threat appears from out of nowhere! Witness a war for the new, better life!
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1.**

**The Awakening**

The creeking sounds of a car Crashing, a glass pane shattering to a million pieces and my body literally being tossed out of something, hitting my head and then my back against something harder than what I can withstand, yet breaking through and immense pain overruning me. For a few unclear seconds, my mind was still awake and aware, but it soon faded to dark nothingness.

"Waaaagh!"

I awoke after a long period of nothingness overrunning me. But how or why did I wake up?

"What? What is this?"

I was laying in the middle of a large wide open yard, of what seemed like to be a school, and not just any type of which.

"How did I end up here? Where am I anyway?"

I was in a boarding school, a pretty big one to be precise, and I was surrounded by the vast emptiness only. I just noticed my clothing now.

"How did I end up in these clothes? And who helped me into them anyway?"

I wasn't completely sure about anything, and what made it worse my entire mind was scattered all over and had no idea what happened to me, or what I was doing in that place. I climbed the school main building and took a look around. What was the most surprising was the surroundings.

"How on Earth is there a School in the middle of a rainforest?"

There was no doubting it, the entire school was in the middle of what looked like en enormous forest, and beyond that nothing but an unpenetrable wall of fog. It was as hot as in an oven, and the sun was shining with immense strength.

"Wheew, man I feel like I'm in a Steam Bath here!"

It was near to unbearably hot, and my clothes were really getting worse with it all whatsoever. I was not only hot, but the Deaf silence was really mutilating me from the inside. I felt the desperate need for someone to talk to. No matter how far and long I went in the past hour, I met noone. This was a Boarding school, so at least some people shoudl've been hanging around somewhere right... ?

"Where the hell is everybody?!"

A desperate call for salvation from a friendly voice, but I wasn't exactly expecting the answer to that I got.

"Hisssssss!"

I turned around as the unearthly sound came from right behind me, and as I looked a bit closer, my surprise turned into horror. A creature of measures and appearance hard to describe slowly lifted up from just beyond the edge of the building's top. It had a near human body, giant Bat wings, Burning red skin and Claws as long as my arm. As I looked at its face it was a face of a thousand fangs, more like that of a Sabertooth tiger, rather than anything human.

"Man, this is not cool!"

I tried to back away from it, but did I really need to trip in my own legs out of fear, and that thing slowly came closer to me. It wasn't really helping my fears that as it looked at me, if he had anything to look with at least, it was heavily drooling. As it came closer, I could feel its sulfur tainted breath. Horrible I'd say, I can only imagine death himself having a breath like that. I felt like I was about to faint, and wouldn't have to sit through the first few seconds of that thing feasting on me.

"Bang... Bang!"

What sounded like distant explosions, and the monstrous creature's hissing turned into the horrible scream of something dying, and melting away. Before I realised what was going on, I was dragged up from the ground and running somewhere. I only opened up my eyes to see a group of three dragging me along. One of them was female, the rest males, that was about all I could make out, as they had black protective suits and helmets on, and what surprised me the most was, that they were carrying weapons, firearms even... So those were gunshots that saved me.

"Baseplate! This is Alpha 3, We're heavily outnumbered and making a run for it with the VIP package! We need immediate reinforcements! Over!"  
"Roger that Alpha 3, Yuuki is on her way!"

The distorted sound and the static afterwards made it clear that I just heard a radio conversation.

"Who are you guys even?"  
"No time to Chit-chat! Get your ass moving!"

The woman told me that who was firmly gripping my left hand, and dragging me along, but not for too long, as we were put to a halt. As I looked around, thousands of those creatures surrounded us.

"Shit Soup! Fire! It's our only chance!"

The woman was obviously the leader in this team of three, and soon enough empty bulletshells were flying all over the place, and the monsters, or whatever they were flying for their lives, only until one of them swept down and caught one of the male members of the trio and Dragged him along.

"No! Komoi!"

The woman reached her arm out to help her comrade, but nearly ended up getting caught herself, but for some reason a Natural instcinct cried out in me and I grabbed the pistol from her belt and fired a bullet straight in the beast's head. It screached and turned to dust immediately.

"Nice reflexes there kid! Good shooting!"

I couldn't see her face but I felt like she looked at me with great grattitude at that moment, and then pointed at the Assault rifle that Komoi guy dropped.

"Take that M23 and help us! It's our only chance!"

I nodded, and bent down, to get the gun, while she covered me. I picked it up, took up a safe stance and opened fire. It had a recoil slightly stronger than I expected it, but I slowly got used to it. I used short bursts of fire instead of constantly firing, which made it slightly easier to aim. I suddenly ran out, but the girl reached out for my magazine, and changed it in two short blinks of an eye. I felt like we made a good team at that moment, and we were making some pretty good progress until...

"Shit! I'm out!"  
"Me too!"

We all ran out, and even though we weren't as badly outnumbered anymore, it was a daring situation. I grabbed the pistol and emptied all bullets, but it was of no use.

"Damn! Baseplate! Where the hell is our reinforcements!?"

As of cue, suddenly something incredibly swift and deadly appeared from out of nowhere in a white flash of light and started slaughtering the creatures with...

"Guard Skill: Hand Sonic!"

As that swift thing stopped for a second, she appeared in full form: Yes it was a girl, with beautiful silverly white hair and Glitteringly clear sapphire blue eyes. From her arms two energy blades burst outwards, which were obviously the so called Hand Sonic.

"Quickly Get him out of here! I'll handle this!"

I had little to no time to take all of that incredible vision in for just two or three seconds, but I was already getting dragged away. The two just dragged me along to the nearest building, and inside we ran past a bunch of Office doors, an ended up at one that said "Principal" on it, and as I looked closer, it had an insignia with a shield and a ribbon across it with SSS written on it.

"What is this place?"  
"The safest place you can be in in this hell hole!"

The mysterious girl stepped up to the door, knocked lightly and one of the strangest passwords came before entering.

"No God, no Buddha, no Angel!"

The door opened up and we entered unharmed. I wasn't exactly sure about what that was all about, but one thing was for sure: If it was a password, it had to have some importance. As we entered, the other two with me took their helmets off, and I noticed that they weren't any older than me... Both around 16-17 of age, the boy was about the same height as me, ha blue hair, and purplish eyes, while the girl had shoulder length blond hair and greyish blue eyes.

"We got him Misaki! Safe and sound!"

Misaki, as the girl called her was a girl of about the same age as me or the other two with black hair and deep green eyes. She was sitting in a huge chair just over the gigantic table at the window in the other end of the room.

"Anyone else?"  
"None at all! He was the only one there, and as it seems, he started the riot too!"

Misaki nodded and she waved for the other girl to leave. Only me and the other kid remained behind.

"Take a seat you two!"

Her words were an order judging by the way she said it. There was also another smaller table, an Armchair and Two large couches in the room. The other kid sat down on one of the couches and I took the Armchair. Misaki now stood, walked over to me, took a good close look at me from all sides and sat down on the table in the end, with her legs and arms crossed.

"You okay kid?"  
"I guess so!"  
"Do you know where you are right now?"  
"I dunno... A school maybe?"

She smiled at that answer of mine.

"Of course, how would you even know... The question is rather where this school is!?"

That sent me into thinking for a bit.

"No clue! In the rainforests?"

She burst into laughter.

"Hell yeah, like it was that simple!"

She sighed and looked me deep in the eyes.

"Look! This may be hard to put a finger on, but... Well you're dead!"

That hit me like a hammer on the forehead.

"What? Are you kidding?"  
"Fraid not kid! You died and you ended up in a place worse than hell itself."

Misaki up and walked to the other kid to knock him hard over the head.

"Knock itt off Tamaki! And thanks for being captain Obvious by the way!"  
"He has to learn some time! Sheesh!"

They started a pretty hefty argument and they went on and on about it, while I kept staring out of the window, to see the images of a murderous battle going on outside. I spaced out so bad, that Misaki grabbed my ears to wake me up.

"Hey!"  
"Ouch! What did you do that for?"  
"You were sleeping with your eyes open kid!"

It was true... At times like this I had a bad tendency to forget about time.

"So... I'm dead, but what is this place anyway?"  
"I'd call it purgatory no less! A place where the lost and confused souls get their time off to think and get their thoughts straightened out. Until... Well..."  
"Until they pass over... Into the light!"

Tamaki's comment was correct. I just remembered, that the basics of Buddhism also held a part about reincarnation... So this place was where you'd end up if you died before you should've in the first place.

"So... What are those things?"  
"You mean the ones that attacked you? We prefer calling them demons!"

A fitting name I'd say.

"And you guys? Who are you supposed to be?"

Misaki went on to explain about the SSS, an armed organisation found by her and a few of her friends to protect the people who end up here from getting hurt by the demons. There was supposedly another SSS called the Shinda Sekai Sensen, which was a bunch of Rebels against god and his orders, but not much was for sure about them, as they already left this world before anyone got here in the first place.

"Here you will encounter 3 kinds of people: Us, members of the SSS, the civillians, who are like sheep among us wolves here, and NPCs!"  
"The what now?"  
"Non Player Characters... If you like. People who lost what made them human!"  
"You mean... ?"  
"That's right, their souls!"

How harsh is that now... ? People can actually lose their souls? That is not fair.

"So... I either become prey or predator right?"  
"That's right! You're catching on quickly kid!"

Misaki and Tamaki were both smiling, acknowledging me as being a person to reason with. I felt like I had fun and earned the trust of those other two by helping them, and also made me feel exhilerated by action. I knew what my answer is:

"Alright! If it's to join the wolves for survival, that I'll gladly do!"  
"A Wise Choice! Welcome on the team!"

We both stood and she shook my hand, and afterwards also with Tamaki.

"All right, now that you are a member of our team, you'll be a member of Tamaki's team!"  
"Right!"  
"Tamaki will also help you get all the necessary equipment you will need!"

Tamaki just nodded and then tapped my shoulder.

"I like this kid! He's got guts!"  
"How come?"  
"He helped us in the tightest of situations... When Komoi was taken by the demons, he grabbed a gun and fired away!"

Misaki nodded and smiled at me with a glance of confidence.

"So you think he's talented, huh?"  
"Definetly yes! I swear he never held a weapon in his hand before! Does he have talent you ask? Well, hell he does!"

Misaki tapped my shoulder again and Shook my hand again.

"Alright, now that we have this down, You're both dismissed!"  
"Yes Ma'am!"

Tamaki saluted, in which I followed him, and We left the room. From what I could make out of this, Misaki was some kind of a Commander and the SSS were the soldiers fighting for our safety. The thought of being a Wolfcub of some sort was a bit reassuring. This was how my adventure in this strange world began.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2.**

**Blond, Black and Snow White**

Oh, I think I forgot to introduce myself here. The name's Yamato, Kiriha Yamato. Well at least that much I remembered about my past... Not that I remember much more than that... Except the fact that I like movies in general. Now that I've finally settled into my new life as a member of the SSS things have slightly gotten easier. To tell you the honest... Well this pace was really different than what I imagined it as at the first sight. A gigantic Boarding School, but there was no studying at all. No adults at all, just us, 16-17 year old teenagers. Tamaki often told me, that even if you get older than this certain age, you just turn back to your best ages. Yeah, like High School was so good for everyone... But in this case I might aswell say that this is a dream of a life to all... Well if it weren't for the demons that is. Now that I was wearing the SSS School uniform, which was only different in the color of the Jacket from the original Black one the civilians wore, I felt much more comfortable. The jacket's light Brown color and the SSS insignia on the Shoulders was really nice loking. at some edges it was also a slightly darker brown and we didn't need to wear the usual tie everyone else did. Tamaki showed me all around the School and told me a lot of stories I usually didn't understand most of them, just nodded in agreement. On one occasion however he told me something really strange.

"Don't you just love those NPC girls?"  
"Yeah, they're really cute. Always smiling, always happy, almost like they never care about a thing in the world!"  
"It's because they don't... At least not like us!"  
"How come?"  
"You know... They don't react to basically anything in the world... Like you and I ... We worry about our friends and all... They don't seem to worry about anything... You can fight with them, punch them all you like... Minutes later you're talking to them like Nothing happened!"

That was interresting to hear.

"You can really make some great friends with them! They're friendly and talkative! There's even a few of them who come tome and chit-chat around like we're long time friends."

I liked that part about this NPC thing, but I still prefered to make human friends instead.

"Hey! Try checking the Cupsize of one of the girls!"  
"What? Why would I do that? Don't you think she'd get mad at me?"  
"Think of what I just told you! Who knows, you might end up getting a cute girlfriend from among them!"  
"Still! I'd never do that! I have manners you know!"  
"Fine! Don't do it then! Can't say I didn't give you a good tip!"

It was okay, Tamaki was a really good friend of mine by then, and he really tried his best to make me feel better at this place if possible. Though there were some of those days when even he wasn't with me. Times like that I was just wandering around school all on my own. I did keep one thing with me all the time to be exact: A Glock 17 pistol just in case I'd come across trouble. Things were really boring at times like this, and for some reason all the SSS members seemed to disappear from the face of the Earth. Even on that day, I was hanging around, sitting on a bench not too far from the main building. I was just sitting around, watching three NPC girls playing around with a ball. Such cute creatures they were. One of them had really long brown hair and brown eyes, the second one had short brown hair and blue eyes, and the third one had Burning red hair, with emerald eyes and Pony tail bent towards the left. They were really cute, playing and giggling around all the time, and if it weren't for that empty stare in their eyes, noone would've told them apart from any other human being.

"Aren't they just cute now?"

I almost jumped out of surprise, as the voice came from right behind me. I looked up and saw the blonde girl from the first day standing, there, half bent onto the bench and looking at the three girls.

"Aren't you... ?"  
"I am! The name's Sayuri!"

She sat down right next to me, resting her arms on the back of the bench. Sayuri? What a nice name for a cute girl like her, and to add that beautiful pair of blue eyes to that... Full of sorrow.

"Yamato right?"  
"Errhm... Yeah, Kiriha Yamato... But how do you know?"  
"Rumours spread quite quickly around here! I did want to come see you, if you're okay, but I guess you're fine!"  
"Well yeah, Tamaki's taking care of me... !"  
"I could've sworn you'd say that!"

She was staring at the three girls with more and more sorrow in her eyes and I felt like I needed to know what her problem was.

"Do you know them by any chance?"

Her expression turned really dark all of a sudden.

"Know them... ? No... That is not the right word!"  
"How come?"

She just shook her head and kept staring at the three. At one point she bit her lips to the point, that she even started bleeding for a bit, but she put her Handkerchief over it, and it soon stopped. It took her a bit before she spoke up again.

"Kanna... Miko... And Himiko... I don't just Know them... They're very good friends of mine... Or at least they were! Until that day!"

I pondered about that for a second, but I didn't need to ask, she just carried on.

"I should never have dragged them into this..."  
"What, they... ?"  
"Yes! They were members of the SSS. On one occasion We were lead into a seemingly harmless operation. We were supposed to ambush them when they were distracted by the others... Those damn monsters! I never thought they're this clever! Ever!"

I knew she was talking about the Demons no less. She slammed her fist against the bench, which hurt her, but her hand healed almost immediately. I knew now, that wounds heal almost instantly, but what about the scars on our soul? Will those ever heal again?

"You..."  
"Me and my 12 comrades, including the three of them... We were cornered like rats! One by one they took them, and I was left last... As if a part of fate... But before they got to me... Yuuki came!"  
"Yuuki?! The girl with the white hair?"  
"Yes, her! She saved me! I just wish she didn't!"  
"She did it out of good intent, trust me!"  
"I know... She did give me one thing that day though!"  
"What would that be?"  
"A reason for Vengeance! If I find the asshole who did this to them, I'll rip his head off!"

I looked at Sayuri with great sorrow. She was such a cute and pretty girl and these horrible thoughts she had... These horrible words that came from her mouth... It just wasn't likely for a girl like her to talk like that. All of a sudden I heard the three girls Whispering.

"Look, it's her!"  
"Then Go on!"  
"Why me?"  
"Just go on already!"

At that moment, I heard quiet footsteps coming closer and When I looked up, I saw Kanna, the girl with the Red hair standing right in front of us, reaching her hands out toward Sayuri. Miko, the one with the long brown hair and Himiko just stayed behind.

"Ka... Kanna!"

Sayuri looked up at her and she had that really faint look in her eyes. She slowly looked her from bottom to top, and she seemed to not believe her ears or eyes.

"Say Sayuri! Don't you want to play with us?"

Sayuri let her head hang again and for moments she didn't say a thing. I suddenly saw huge teardrops falling to the ground, and she stood up and ran away screaming:

"Noooo!"

Poor Kanna just stared at her, as she ran out of sight.

"Did I ... Say something Wrong?"

I shook my head at that.

"No you didn't Kanna! It's just that Sayuri lost some very close friends of hers not so long ago... And she can't get over it... At least not yet!"  
"Oh... I'm... Sorry..."

All of a sudden Kanna changed a lot. So much even, that she turned into what looked like a statue of sorrow. She was sad, really sorrowful and her eyes were glittering with tears in them. For a Second there I felt like some life returned into her, but then...

"Kanna! Come on!"  
"Coming!"

She turned back into her normal self... As much as it can be normal, when you're an NPC. She started smiling again and went back to playig as if nothing happened. I really couldn't understand her, but then again... Who was I to judge her... What Sayuri said however really hit me hard. I just stood up and left to fulfill my needs in life... That's right, even if you die, you still maintain your old needs, like hunger and thirst, you can even get tired and need sleep, not to mention the fact, that you can actually feel your own heartbeat. As I left the cafeteria, I went straight to the one place where I always seemed to find my peace at. It was actually the School entrance, which had some stairs leading down to the gate itself, and there were two little waterfalls conviniently placed on the two sides of the staircase itself. It was a really neat little place of all, and of all places in this school I really liked just standing or sitting around and listening to the water flowing, or the birds chirping around me, and sinking into my thoughts. This time however there was something different, as someone with beautiful hip length white hair was sitting at the bottom of the stairs, humming a song... One which was oddly familiar, yet I was unable to lay a finger on... My head started becoming light and dizzy all of a sudden, as this song somehow seemed to stir up memories in me, that were still blurry.

"Yu... Yuuki!"

The girl with the white hair sitting at the bottom just looked up at me, and immediately started smiling. That gentle and light hearted smile of hers was really comforting. She soon joined me and we went on a small walk around the school itself. Much like me, or especially Sayuri, she was wearing the SSS civilian uniform. It was your average Sailor Fuku, with blue colar and a red scarf, along with a blue mini skirt.

"So... Yuuki... What I was gonna ask... How did you end up here?"

Yuuki looked up at me, as if she didn't understand what I just asked.

"What do you mean?"  
"I mean like... How did you die, or when did you get here?"  
"Oh..."

She went into pondering for a bit.

"The truth is.. I have no idea..."

So she had amnesia like me... It was almost natural, that whoever died in some kind of accident or really suddenly, might have just lost their memories for longer or shorter periods of time. Somewhat the same applied to me.

"I see... And those..."  
"My magic powers you mean?"

Now how the hell did she know that?

"Uhm... Yeah.. Where did you get those?"  
"To tell you the truth, they aren't really magical... They're actualy created by a computer program!"  
"How do you even get a program like that?"  
"No idea!"

She just pulled her shoulders, which just made me wonder even more.

"I just found it on a computer in my room... I played around a bit and now I have them."  
"Sounds interresting... And you can really pack a punch, huh?"

She just shook her head.

"Not at all... I think you mean if I use it for fighting on purpose..."  
"Uhm... yeah!"  
"Like I said, not at all! I'm only allowed to use them as a method of defending myself, and or others with it."

It made sense, since she called them Guard Skills. Delay, Hand Sonic, and what she called Overdrive, which was a skill that was always active at all, granting her incredible physical capabilities.

"What about Sayuri?"  
"What about her?"  
"Are you friends?"

She went into pondeing again, but this time the smile from her face seemed to disappear.

"Well I consider her one... Except she seems to hate me for some reason..."

I could clearly understand it from what she told me.

"I think it's about her friends... You know... Kanna, Miko and Himiko..."  
"Oh... Of course... The three girls!"

She had tears in her eyes.

"I... I wanted to save everyone... I just... I got there too late!"  
"I see!"

I put a reassuing hand on her head, which wasn't too hard, considering she was a tad bit shorter than me... Okay a lot shorter, as I was an entire head taller, than her.

"Look Yuuki! I'm sure things will straighten out and she'll learn to forgive you some day!"

She looked up at me with those beautiful, sorrowful blue eyes and when she saw my smile, which was meant to cheer her up a bit, she started smiling herself.

"Yuuki-san! Do you mind... ?!"

I saw a group of people coming our way from somewhere around the dorms, wearing NPC like uniforms.

"Please do excuse me then!"

Yuuki bowed and she ran to the group, grabbing two of them by their arms and dragging them along. I did remember the fact, that only the SSS members wore different clothes than others, and civilians wore the same outfit all the time, as the NPCs. I felt like I needed to look for someone else to talk, to for things have had their ups and downs unti l now... Maybe now I could find someone who could give me some good time finally. I went back around the road that lead to the Gate, and passed the bench, where I talked with Sayuri. The three girls weren't there anymore, and as I went a bit further I found a pleasant little fountain in a wide open area.

"Wow! This is really nice! First the waterfalls, and now the Fountain..."

It was true. The school was reallly conveniantly decorated. If it weren't for the inevitable fact, that we were all dead it would've been a really neat little place for living here. If it weren't for the demons that is... Actually living here would be like an endless cycle, as time doesn't seem to pass at all, and everyone remains the same age for ever.

"What the... ? Who's playing guitars here?"

It was there when I noticed, that someone was playing a guitar. Slowly and sometimes unsure, but it was going places. It really sounded nice in a way, and even though the guitar was slightly off on the sounds at times, it still was comming together. I went around the fountain and found a girl in civilian uniform, and incredibly long black hair waving around in the wind sitting on the edge of the fountain, with her back at me. She was probably pretty good with the guitars, as she was working on tuning it up while in the process. I suddenly remembered what Tamaki told me, and even though I really wanted to refrain from doing things like that... I did come to an idea that wasn't as rude as that. I slowly snuck closer to her and reached out to tickle her around her ribs a bit.

"Kiyaaaagh!"

She screamed and suddenly threw everything in her hands away into the wind. I did catch the guitar somehow, but some papers got carried off with the wind. She suddenly turned around and hung her mesmorisingly beautiful golden colored eyes onto me. She was really scared and fiddled around with her fingers. I Could almost see her heart nearly bursting out of her chest. She was a normal human being, just like me.

"Oh god... I ... I'm really sorry... I swear I didn't mean to scare you!"  
"What was that all about?"

Oh god that voice of hers... Like an angel truely... She must've been a singer or something, because her voice was really soft and was like bells rolling in my head.

"I told you I'm sorry!"  
"But what about my notes now?"  
"Notes?"

I looked at the papers being dragged along by the wind, and something forced me to move and run after them until finally caught all of them.

"What the hell is this? Sum 41... Metallica... And... What the... ?! Mighty RAW?!"  
"You know them maybe?"  
"I do recall some of them... Some of the lyrics too..."

We finally sat down and I told her about myself and how I ended up in this situation in the first place. I also told her about what Tamaki told me, and as soon as everything became clear, she wasn't mad at me anymore.

"I'm Yamato by the way!"  
"And I'm Sora!"

Sora then proceeded to tell me about herself a bit. She told me, that she had a band when she was alive, and they reorchestrated some f the best pieces of music to their liking, and became quite popular among the youngest of audiences even. Her two best friends were the Bass guitarist and the keyboardist and her boyfriend was the drummer.

"You guys were really well together, huh?"  
"Yeah! We made a great team!"  
"So what happened to you anyway?"  
"I was ill..."

That was a shock. She was working on her first very own song, when she learned that she had cancer. Within a few months, things have really gotten bad with her and they were preparing for a great farewell concert, but only minutes before the concert begun, she lost her consciousness and never woke up again.

"So, that's what your dream is? To perform your own song?"  
"Well that too..."  
"What else then?"  
"Well... I wanted to do a lot of other things... Like getting married... Having children... I guess that will never come true..."

I really felt sorry for her to be honest. She really loved that Hikaru guy, which was obvious from the way she spoke about him, and their relationship. I kind of envied her for remembering everything of her past.

"And you? Are you by any means a musician?"  
"Well I do like music... But I don't remember much else..."

She was such a cute... No she was truely beautiful and charming. I've never seen anyone like her in my life... At least I think so... She was a bit retreating at first, which I scraped off as being because I scared her, but she slowly opened up, and became more talkative, and she turned out to have a really beautiful smile too. I suddenly had a great idea.

"Hey! There's a classroom here that has everything for an entire Band! You wanna come and see?"

She looked up at me with glittering eyes and as she saw me smiling, she started smiling herself and nodded. I grabbed her hand and lead her on. I've discovered the entire school inside and out, so I knew the shortest way there. When we arrived we literaly found instruments for an entire rock band there.

"This used to be the practicing room for Girls Dead Monster. A Band who were working as a part of the old SSS here. This all belonged to them back then, and it's all there ready to be used!"

I told her that like I knew that all by myself, but the truth was, I heard all this from Tamaki. Sora put her Accoustic guitar down and picked the red Solo Guitar up from next to the drums. She turned the speakers on, and went for it. It sounded really awesome, but I suddenly caught myself together, and turned the volume down. I looked out of the window to check if there was any trouble around, but when I saw everything was okay, I closed the window and turned the volume back up to the level, when we could hear it all.

"We wouldn't want to get the demons' attention, right?"  
"Yep! Here!"

She already picked a note out, and handed it to me. The title was...

"Mach 23? You don't mean... ?"  
"Yep, you should sing it!"

I wasn't really sure if I wanted to try, but then again... Who was I turn her down. I picked the claviature and sat down turning it on. I wasn't sure why I picked it, or why it had to be that one of all, but I felt like I've played one before, or something like a Piano maybe. I tried if I had the skill, and from what I could tell, it was okay. Even Sora Nodded.

"Looks like you read the notes quite well!"  
"Yeah it seems so!"  
"You Ready?"

She count to three with her fingers and we went at it. It was a bit slow at first, and I needed some time to pick up the pace, but then I caught myself singing and playing with ease, and when the accoustic part came by, Sora went over into a real wizard with the strings. I really got carried away and her vocals also helped in. When we finally finished off and the last couple notes went by, we finished both being comletely exhausted, and in the need of some rest.

"Wooohooh! One more time you guys!"

That came from behind, and as we turned, we saw Misaki, Yuuki, Sayuri and Tamaki standing at the door and clapping. Sora and I looked at each other smiling, but we didn't feel like we could do that again. Misaki walked up to us and put a hand on my shoulder.

"I see you met our most popular inmate here!"  
"Most popular?"

I looked at Sora, who was just smiling away.

"Well Sora arrived only a couple days after you got here, but she immediately became everyone's favourite, getting a lot of fans!"  
"And I've found myself a friend too!"

It really felt great that Sora said that, even after what I've done when we got to know each other.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3.**

**Operation Deep Impact**

In the following weeks, things went over into a bullet train, when it came to new people arriving in the Afterlife. More and more, friendly and cheerful looking people kept appearing, but to my sorrow, they mostly wanted to stick being cilvilians. Only two of them became memorable, who also joined Tamaki's Team. One of them was a girl, Riku. Greenish blue eyes and hair, loud and fowl mouth, and a strange liking in causing everyone a hard time. The other one was to no surprise a boy, Yuta, pretty tall and handsome, dark brown hair and black eyes. I've quickly made some really good friends with them, and we often gathered together at the Fountain, which became a meeting place to us all, and talked our problems off our shoulders. Even on that day I remember, sitting down with my friends at the fountain, along with Sora, who wasn't too far away either, working on her song as always. To my surprise, Yuta took a box of cigarettes out of his pocket and offered us all some. We, like anyone else were just staring at him like crazy.

"What?"  
"Isn't this forbidden?"

He just burst into laughter.

"Are you kidding? By Who?"

And so right he was.

"Come on! It's for free and it's not forbidden! Come on! you won't come to any more harm anymore!"

Where he was right, he sure was right, and of course Riku was headfirst to accept. I hesitated for a bit, but it was true, it couldn't hurt anymore, so I took one myself. It really was horrible at first, and I needed to clear my throat a lot, but soon I got used to it. Sora just stared at me with that mad look in her eyes, but it wasn't really like she was angry at me, she was jus kidding around. It is true though, she didn't take any.

"So? Who wants to get started?"

I was the one, who asked my friends to tell me all about them, as they could, since they already knew I had amnesia. Yuta let some smoke go.

"I'll get it started!"

He took a deep sip out of his smokes and started slowly.

"So... The thing is, I was a professional Dancer! Like, you know, Tango, Chachacha... Competitive even."  
"And what happened?"  
"Well... I had a lot of bad habits... Includin Casino for one fine example. After a pretty bad fight, I got stabbed into my lung and left to die."

A mighty horrible way to die, that one was for sure.

"What about you Riku?"

Riku just looked at me and for a second she just smiled.

"Would you believe, I was the only member of a Mute and Deaf family, who could hear?"  
"That's interresting to hear! But what happened to you?"  
"The Third Heart attack was one too many for me."

That was hocking to hear.

"How old were you even?"  
"44! No doubt I was a little overage compared to you all!"

True it was. Sora was 22, Yuta 28, and me... Well I guess I was 17. But Riku 44, that was a stunning long life she had, yet she ended up here... I guess She still had a lot to do before she died, and that may be why she was with us now.

"So, how does it feel, being 17 again?"

Sora's question was quited unexpected. Was she gonna add that to her song too?

"Tell you the truth, it feels great!"  
"Wonderful even!"

Riku and Yuta laughed, but that laugh wasn't really honest. Now they stood and Yuta stuffed the cigarette and the lighter in my pocket.

"You can have the rest buddy!"

Yeah right, two entire pieces... Like that will last long! Well I still have some for the evening at least. Or so I thought. Sora was unheadingly working on her song, and it was slowly coming together, at least on the instrumental part.

"Sounds pretty good!"  
"Thanks! It still needs a lot of work though!"

I watched her with her notes and guitar, constantly playing and writing, taking notes, erasing errors, and couldn't help but feel some slight romantic passion overrunning me.

"Do you want me to share my remaining smokes with you?"  
"Na-ah! Not with me! Cancer, remember?"

I let my head hang for a few seconds, but then I came to a bright idea.

"It's okay! I mean... You can't be ill anymore! Besides, what kind of Cancer did you have?"  
"In my brains if you want to know so much?"  
"But that isn't influenced by smoking you know!"

She looked at me with inspective eyes for a second, and I held the box out to her. She thought of it for a second, but ultimately let a smile go, and and took one, and the lighter. Soon enough we were letting big smoke clouds go, and she seemed to losen up more and more.

"See! I told you it's not so bad!"  
"Yeah! I feel like my head's getting refreshed!"  
"Did you smoke while you were alive?"  
"Only once, but... Well it wasn't as good as this... I don't know what changed!"  
"Maybe the thought of doing it without any consequences..."

She nodded and when we ran out of all, she asked me to leave her alone for a bit. I didn't need to be asked twice, even though I loved being with her, and I could, I'd be with her all the time. Suddenly I saw Tamaki running my way.

"Assembly at the command center, now!"

No more need for words. within the next five minutes All possible people, up to 60 in total found themselves in the office sitting or standing, watching Misaki pointing out important portions of our next operation on a giant screen with a laser pointer. It was all abot a controlled Detonation that would cause a Cave in, completely burrying the Demon Well, the source of all our problems.

"Tomorrow morning, 0900 according to ZULU time, we will commence Operation Deep impact."  
"Deep impact? Quite te fitting name!"  
"I was hoping you'd say that! Troups will assemble on base grounds at 0800, until then dismmissed!"

That was the last call, and as soon as the assmbly began, it was already over. Tamaki, me and the team remained behind, and Tamaki kept arguing with Misaki about some details for a bit, and the only one missing was Sayuri, who was already out to take care of our equipment. After a while, we finally left the office and Tamaki took the initiative as always.

"Alright then! Tomorrow at 8 is go time, but only for the Elite troops. For us 9 is fine! Come on!"

He lead us to his own room and there he opened a drawer and took a bottle of fine Scotch forth. He filled four glasses and drank his share.

"What are you guys waiting for? Formal invitation or something?"  
"Isn't this... ?"  
"Don't get me started on the "Forbidden" part!"

So Yuta told him about our little adventure with the smokes.

"Okay, but shouldn't we be Clear by the morning?"  
"Don't worry about that, will ya!"

I couldn't do any more about it so we had our drinks, and after a while, even the smokes came forth. However I felt like I was in a stinking pub after a while, and I felt like the drink was a bit too much aswell. I just left the room to get some fresh air before going to bed. When I arrived at my favourite place however, I was greeted by the same song as last time, but this time a title came to my mind.

"My... Song... ?"

Yuuki looked up at me with that usual smile of hers. I soon joined her and we had our time sitting at the bottom of the stairs on the warm tiles.

"Did you drink something?"

Great, so her smelling is also sharp?

"Err yeah, but how did you know?"  
"It's not hard to tell... Whiskey right?"  
"Yep..."

She knew all about it.

"How do you know so well anyway?"  
"Tamaki keeps drinking that stuff all the time!"  
"Where did they get that stuff anyway?"  
"The same place As Sora got her Guitar basically. You know everything has a way of working and if you know how it functions, how you react to it, how it affects you ingeneral, or when it comes to food or drinks, you can easily create them here... You just need help from the Guild!"  
"The Guild?"

Oh, of course, the guild, the hidden organisation behind this school and the SSS in general.

"And how do you even know stuff like this anyway?"  
"I am the student Council president you know! It is like a necessity for me to know stuff like that!"

Oh so that's how we are? She's the president here, and from what I can tell, Misaki is like a minister of self defense. Makes sense.

"I'll head off to sleep! What about you?"  
"Guess I have nothing to do either... I'll come with you!"

So she joined me back to the dorms, and soon waved me her goodbyes, and went inside. My room wasn't too big, but it had a huge window and right now a lot of moonlight dropped in through it. I just layed onto my bed dressed up the way I was and fell asleep.

The next morning came pretty early, but fair enough, as I was all rested up and ready to go, Equippped with a Sub-machine gun, an Assault rifle, and two pistols just in case. We were left behind at school as guards, Sayuri was head first, as always.

"Morning! Have you had some good sleep?"  
"Sure had!"

I was fresh and good to go.

"What about the drinks? Any probems?"  
"Nope, non at all! I got cleared up by the time I went to bed."  
"That's good to hear!"

And then I saw the other team members coming. Tamaki was okay, as he drank Whiskey in place of Water too, but the other two well... Let's just say, they were in no condition to be called human beings at this time.

"What happened to you guys?"  
"Whiskey Steam Roller!"

Only Yuta was capable of talking. Poor Riku could barely breathe, apparently her protective suit was a little too tight, and Sayuri had to step closer and fix it for her.

"Gee... Thanks!"  
"You're welcome!"

Supposedly we were the only ones in school as the Elite troops left about an hour earlier, and aside us, the only non-civilian was Yuuki. Not too many, but still as well as we were equipped we had all the chances to hold out for as long as the reinforcements could arrive.

"Yamato, we may be the only ones up here but would you mind checking if anyone was left outside of the Safe zone?"  
"Err..."

Sayuri was giving orders, as if she was boss, but Tamaki just waved me off, which meant that he wanted to say the same thing.

"Alright I'm off then!"

I really wanted to know how Sayuri had any reasonable right to order anyone around, but I had a hunch, that she had a little more than just rights there. I went on a large round around chool, first the classrooms: all empty, the dorms: Empty, the Gym: Empty, the track and field grounds: Empty. All's well unless...

"Not that guitar again!"

I had my sub-machine gun ready at any second, but the guitar only meant one person, someone I liked a lot, or more than just liked even. I found her at the bottom of the stairs to the gate. I walked all the way to her and put my hand on her shoulder. She jumped up in an instance, but at least this time she didn't throw anything away.

"Sora!"  
"For god's sake Yamato, would you cut that out!"  
"Look I'm sorry! But what are you even doing here anyway?"

She looked at me like an idiot.

"What's it look like?"  
"But you should be in the safe zone right now! We even announced it on the School radio."  
"You're silly!"

She knocked on my forehead.

"You're forgetting, I'm sleeping with my headphones on!"

And I completely forgot that too, but...

"What was that?"

I heard a light moaning noise from the distance and the ground was slightly shaking aswell. Suddenly the familiar and horrid Hissing started from all sides.

"What happened?"

Noises from all sides surpressed her voice, but I could still hear her.

"The first bomb went off! It awakened the demons outside the well!"  
"What well?"  
"The one that keeps puking Demons upon us all the time."

I had no more time for explanation, I just grabbed her hand and tried to make a run for it, as fast as I could. She couldn't keep up with me, so I had to pick her up in my arms and carry her.

"Put me down and run! I'm just holding you back!"  
"Never! I have a friend you know, who would kill me a hundred times if I left you in trouble!"

She needn't any more explanations, just hung her arms around my neck, and let herself get carried around. I was trying my best to make it back to the others, but those bone chilling shadows made it worse. I suddenly felt her soft hands screwing around with my belt.

"What are you doing?"  
"Trying to help you, what else?"  
"Do you even know how to handle that thing?"

She didn't answer me, and I just heard a click, then two shots fired and two demons hissing going over to a horid screaming and I knew her shots hit. I wasn't surprised actually, as I knew she was a strong and quite bold girl, but never thought she'd go this far even. We ran into the nearest building, and I put her down, handing her my other pistol, and all the ammo I could.

"Here! Now Cover me if you can!"  
"Right!"

And that she did, I was shocked by how good of a mark she was, but I had my faith in her. I grabbed my radio, as it was my only chance.

"Yuuki, can you hear me? Over!"

For moments, nothing, but suddenly a familiar and soft voice answered.

"Yuuki here, What gives!?"  
"We have a situation here! Sora was stuck utside of the safe zone, and I'm making a run with her, but we're cornered..."  
"And outnumbered!"

Sora's note was to the point, the demons breached the building from all sides and came closer with every second. Yuuki obviously heard her.

"Where are you guys?"  
"Main building, bottom floor, in front of the... 1-c Classroom!"  
"Roger! I'm on my way!"

Sora had my back covered and We made a quite good team, but the demons kept swarming in like crazy. I helped her reload as much as I could, and I was really proud of her hard working. Suddenly, the bright and lightning fast white flash came, as of cue:

"Guard Skill: Hand Sonic version 2!"

Yuuki in from the left, and using her improved Hand Sonic, which had onger and sleeker blades. Soon she opened us some small corridor.

"This way! Hurry!"

I handed her Yuuki's hand.

"Take her to safety, I'll be fine!"

She nodded and rushed out of sight. I started running with all my strength towards the point wher the others were supposed to be, but wanted to check where the demons were, only to almost be caught by one of them. Two loud bangs and the Demon was gone again, like the last time, and only one person was capable of being this lethally accurate in a situation like this.

"Sayuri! I owe you my afterlife again!"  
"No time for small talk, et you ass moving!"

She was right. I got up as fast as I could, and followed her, while we covered each other correspondingly. We finally made it to the others who were also in a tight pinch and Needed our help desperately. We joined in and soon enough Yuuki was there aswell. We were outnumbered and not just a bit, no matter how hard Yuuki struggled, and no matter how much we tried, they kept swarming from everywhere.

"It's no use! We can't take them!"

Sayuri was in a state of panic. She suddenly collapsed under the weight of the situation, which reminded her of when she lost her friends. I really felt sorry for her at that moment.

"Sayuri..."

I looked around, and saw everyone else fighting with their last bits of strength. Poor Sayuri on her knees and covering her ears screaming in terror.

"Nooo! I don't want this!"

I just shook my head and kneeled to her, grabbing her under her arm and dragging her up.

"Come on Sayuri! Pull yourself together!"  
"But..."  
"No buts! Just take a look around! What do you see? Do you see everyone else giving up?"

She took a look at everyone with her eyes wide open in fear and awe at the same time.

"See! Noone's giving up! You shouldn't do it either! Come on! Take your weapon and help us!"

I handed her her gun and she finally seemed to gain her will to live back.

"No good guys! We're short on ammo!"

Tamaki's interception was true, we were on the verhe of running out of our last ammunition.

"Let's back off to the wall and and shift to Semi Automatic! We can't waste any ammo from now on!"

I don't know why I said that, nor why everyone seemed to instantly obey me, but we all backed to the Office building's wall, backs to each other, covering one another all the time. The Demons were still overwhelming, and Yuuki was giving her all, but to no use. Slowly all of us ran out of our last bullets, even from the sidearms. Mine ran out first, since I let Sora use mine.

"Hang in there guys, we'll take them hand to hand if we have to!"

Sayuri drew a 20 inch Machete from her left boot, and was ready to do anything.

"If Yuuki can do it, so can we!"

We were set to give our last efforts And fight with whatever we had. However the most unexpected happened: A second explosion roared in the distance and The ground shook a second time. Suddenly other SSS member started swarming from everywhere, who were fighting their heroic battle on other sides until now but now joined us. From out of nowhere a smaller group appeared carrying crates. Inside we found all the ammo in the world, and Tamaki got himself an incredible weapon, I really never thought I'd see: A Minigun, and he hung all the extra ammo on himself.

"Come on you guys! Now we'll turn the tables on them!"

We also recieved some grenades, which were timed.

"When you arm them, you have 3 seconds to throw them as far as you can! Make sure it counts!"

Sayuri followed up on her explanation with her actions. Yuta was way better at throwing, and Riku helped him, while I threw every single one as far as I could. Soon enough the united efforts made it all worth while, and the sky started clearing out and the hissing slowly settled into silence. Tamaki finally stopped and threw the minigun down after having screamed his llungs out like a mad man.

"We won!"

We just heard everyone yelling and screaming that from all sides. Yuuki and I collapsed on our knees out of exhaustion, while Sayuri, and even Yuta and Riku were crying. I did get all of them, Riku hugging Yuta tight, and crying her eyes out. Theyonly saw their first real live action, and no wonder they broke afterwards. True I only saw my second time, but I already had some idea hw tight it can be. Sayuri was different however: She was crying out of joy, joy and sheer happiness, because she took rightful revenge on the demons for everything. I went to her and hugged her myself, since noone else would.

Only a couple hours later we were all in the office, and everyone was singing the victory song we made up in the late afternoon. Sora wrote the music to it, and we made the lyrics up together. True, it wasn't the best, but what can you do in a couple of short hours? Sora took years to work on her song, and she was still far from done. Champaigne and joy was all we needed at that point, and Misaki just put her legs up on the table as usual, smiling away. After the party was over, only me and my team remained behind. That's right, 'Me' and 'my' team. Tamaki left us alone, saying:

"I've seen a lot of strange fellows in my life bro, but you... You're something special!"

Misaki just smiled away, and not only Yuta, Riku and me, but also Sora, who was already there with us, wearing the SSS School uniform.

"I have to congratulate you! Your efforts were outstanding!"

She slowly walked around us and took a good close look at all of us.

"The elite Force has lost great numbers of men, and we could use some good handy people on the team, in case anything happens!"

She hung some Badges on our uniforms, which was a sign of our initiation into the real league.

"Congratulations! You're now officially members of the Elite Squadron!"

I was really proud of my team, and no doubt I dreamt of this since a long time now.

"Congratulations you guys! You've made us both proud! Especially you Yamato!"

Sayuri stepped out of the shadows in the corner and joined Misaki's side.

"Don't tell me! You're... !"  
"Oh, you haven't met my second in command, Sayuri yet! I asked her to be the observer over you guys! And I was right when setting her on you!"

I should've known! They always seemed to act and talk different, when around each other amd not to mention the fact, that they sometimes retreated to privacy, when talking about certain business.

"All right, that is all, you're dismissed!"

We saluted and left as ordered. This time however I was walking to my dorms with Sora, and she often threw a keen stare at me, often giggling.

"What?"  
"Ah, nothing!"  
"Come on, tell me!"

She burst into laughter and grabbed my arm.

"I just need to get used to you being a lieutenant all of a sudden."  
"Noone ever said that I think!"

She came a bit closer.

"You know, Misaki said, you're a true leader type, and inspire others!"  
"Really?"  
"Exactly! Misaki even said what you did for Sayuri's sake was really the heroic part! Standing up for your friends!"  
"Is that so? And why did you join? Was it all because of that?"  
"That too!"

She pulled me closer to herself and kissed my cheeks.

"And the fact, that a handsome guy let me cover his back in a tight situation!"

That was really great! She actually changed her mind in one afternoon because of that, and she was even willing to give her ideals of peace up for this sake.

"And she called me Handsome!"

I smiled like a silly teenager, and Held my hand to the part on my face, where she kissed me. It really felt great. She waved me goodbye, and entered the girls dorms.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4.**

**The Camping trip**

It's never been this peaceful in the Afterlife. So much so, that it started becoming really annoying after a while. Some months passed, and some people started pondering about whether what they should do to kill some time. I for one however made my own Daily routine:

~When I met either iku or Yuta, it was all about smoking and they taught me dancing or just talked about the good old days. Well we would, if I remembered anything yet.

~When I was drawn together with Tamaki, I was usually with the above two, and Tamaki's room became like a heavy smoking area in an old pub.

~When I got rid of the stench, I sometimes met Yuuki, and then she told me some interresting stories of this strange, yet interresting world. She was probably the only friend I had, who never really minden any of my bad habits I picked up.

~Sayuri... Well yeah Sayuri was completely different case. She wasn't just a heavy smoker, but she had one cigarette in her mouth, but already lit the next one. I wasn't really surprised by that fact though... She had a lot of pressure on her... Not to mention the condition her frends were in. I really felt sorry for her I won't deny that.

~When I was drawn into Misaki's way however... Well she didn't allow any slacking off... Well not always at least. On one very rare occasion however, she had some cigars and was more than willing to share one with me.

~Sora! Now Sora was a completely different case. I did hang out with her more and more often. Sometimes even more than others. She was special to me in all possible ways. Sometimes sitting right next to her, while she was working on her song.

On one occasion like that I even went a little further than usual, and even rested my head on her shoulder. For a second she stopped and and looked at me, with a sly mile.

"Oi, oi, oi! No bothering the artist will you!"

I suddenly lifted my head from her and probably made sme really silly face, because she started laughing almost in an instance. I'll admit, we usually made fun like that a lot since a while, and laughing made her even more beautiful if possible. However something was different this time, and she came really close to me, only to give me a kiss on my forehead. She'd usually just laugh wholeheartedly, but this was totally stunning.

"I was just kidding you silly! I love it when you do that!"

No doubt, she's become really important to me and I cared for her as more than just a friend now. Still though we really had a lot of trouble with the really boring days. Those kidns of days annoyed the hell out of us all. This was, when Tamaki called us all together to the cafeteria.

"Great! Is everyone here yet?"  
"Yeah-yeah! Let's hear it already! What did you call us for?"

Sayuri's impatience was all with a reason. We were bored out of our skulls and if he had anything to offer us that would chase the boredom away, then so be it!

"Oh of course! I called you here, because obviously everyone is quite bored since quite a while now!"  
"You're kidding right? I'm so bored, I'm actually pondering about passing on into the light out of pure boredom."

Sayuri's sarcasm was just another clear sign of just how much this whole peace art was getting to us.

"Yes-yes! I know it's hard on you, and for which reason I've decided to organise a small Trip into the wilderness surrounding the school!"  
"You've what?!"  
"You've heard me right you guys! Tomorrow morning we're leaving and we won't be back for the next three days!"

That sounded great, and there was no doubt, we'd all agree to join him. We even recieved a list of what we were supposed to take with us:

**- Comfortable, possibly warm clothes**  
**- Rain coat**  
**- A tent**  
**- Boots and/or shoes, that can be comfortable enough for us to keep going for three days.**  
**- Anything that makes you feel comfortable**

An that all was available to the last piece at the guild, who had a shop set up in the place of the Cafeteria. We all spent our nigths at peace and were all dreaming of the following day.

The next morning seemed to take forever to come, but it finally came, and we started gathering at the school gate. Yuuki seemed to be like someone who never sleeps, and was already there waiting for us. I was second, then Sayuri, and the others. Yuta and Riku were last as always. I don't know how or why, but Misaki always seemed to be busy, and this time she stayed away as well.

"Well then, Off we go! Let's make this a fun trip shall we?!"  
"Yeah!"

As soon as we left the school grounds we stepped onto the path, that seemed to lead almost all around school. After a while however, it split to three branches. Two of which went uphill and the third one downwards.

"We'll be coming back home on the third one the day after tomorrow!"  
"Shouldn't we have brought something for positioning or something?"

Tamaki went into thinking for a bit.

"Nah! The Guild do have a sort of a map for this place, which is kind of inaccurate, but it's not a necessity! If you meant a compass, No point... It doesn't point anywhere!"  
"Oh!"  
"Besides, even if you get lost here, you will sooner or later find yourself back at the school eitherway!"

That was comforting to hear from him, and we left ourselves in his care for the rest of the trip. He was one of the few people, putting Misaki aside, who were there for like an eternity now. Not even he could tell exactly how long it was.

We spent the first day with all day marching. The girls were completely exhausted, especially poor Riku, who said, that she was dying, if we didn't stop, about twenty times within the last hour. That was a bit of a drawback, and we were left to sleep in the mountains, and get back to moving the next morning. It was a setoff from the original plan, but it was worth it, I was dead tired myself.

The next day we kept going, but this time, Tamaki slowed down a bit, so that everyone could keep up with him. He was like... Perpetum Mobile, always on the move. But right now we rather wanted him to take it easy. Sayuri and I were the tail of the snake, while passing over the ridge, and for the night, we settled in a windsafe place still in the mountains.

"Don't worry you guys! Tomorrow we'll get to the point when we finally leave the mountains and get down to the riverbank! There it's some good old fashioned fishing, and the next morning it's back home! For real this time!"  
"Great to hear!"

Sayuri was kind of getting out of han with these comments of hers, but she was okay for a change... Just a bit retreating... Okay more than usual... We spent the evening roasting Marshmallows and telling ghost stories, like in old camping days. Then we all went to sleep to our tents. Us boys wereplaced in separate tents and the girls were all in one big tent for five people. I woke up in the early morning however, and couldn't go back to sleep anymore. I just went outside and sat on a rock, staring at the night sky until a soft voice called me.

"You can't sleep either, huh?"  
"Nope... Not at all!"

It was Sora, I could easily recognise her footsteps. She now sat down right next to me and went to staring at the sky aswell. As I took a closer look at the sky, everything, the stars, the Moon, the star formations, everything was just like back on Earth.

"Say, Yamato... Do you believe God exists?"

That was one strange thing to ask, but come to think of it... I've been thinking of that myself, but every time I came to the same conclusion: It will turn out in time.

"I guess he should! I mean... Well someone has to have created this place, right?"  
"You're right..."

Her hand slowly snuck its way closer to me, and ended up resting on mine soon enough. Not that I minded that anyway.

"But... Why? Why did it have to be a school of all?"

That was again an interresting question.

"I guess... Well God must have a strange taste for things... Or a really wicked sense of Humor..."  
"Yeah, I guess you're right!"

She finally noticed where her hand wandered off to, and I was even holding it by now. She suddenly pulled it away and I could tell in the faint moonlight, that she was blushing.

"Oh... I' sorry!"  
"No need to be sorry! We are kind of like a couple, right?"

Now her eyes widened like crazy! Could it be, she didn't even think of it as such?

"You really mean it so?"  
"Well... We are spending a lot of time together and wedo behave different than with others... And those moments... I mean..."

She just let her head hang, and seemed to be pondering about something.

"What's wrong?"  
"Nothing! I've just never been thinking about that like this before! You think we really are a couple?"

That left me without answers, since I had no memories about ever having loved anyone.

"Well... How about you tell me! You've had a boyfriend before right?"  
"Yeah, but it was different than with you!"  
"Why?"  
"Well... I mean... It was different than with you! Takeru and I had music to bind us together..."  
"And me?"  
"I... Well... Your case is different..."

Okay, so does that mean, that she doesn't even like me? She was still kind of unsure and fiddling around with her fingers.

"Look... If you don't want to think of it like this... Just forget what I said!"

She looked at me in confusion, and finally nodded.

"If... You say so..."

She stood and left. I just slapped my forehead.

"Man... How can I be such an idiot! I totally blew it!"

That I thought... I went back to my tent, and tried to get to sleep. However not five minutes passed and I heard Sora's quiet footsteps and a quiet noise on the tent's front.

"Are you asleep yet?"  
"No... I can't get to sleep!"  
"Mind if I come over to you? Riku's snoring like mad, and Yuuki made my blanket hers!"

I undid the zippe on the tent and waved her in.

"Come on in! Be my guest!"

She slowly settled down right next to me and I covered her in my blanket.

"What about you?"  
"Don't worry about me! I can take a lot worse weather than this!"  
"You sure?"  
"Yeah, go on! I'll be fine!"

She took a deep sniff into it, and she turned away. It only took a couple minutes, before she was quietly breathing and fast asleep. I really liked her no matter which side of hers I saw. Even now, as I was staring at her back, I could still see her glittering golden eyes looking at me in the moonlight. I finally closed my eyes and boy, what a dream I had!

* * *

**"8-1! I can't belive it! We won!"**

**That was all I could keep repeating all the time, and mom and my sister, Mikoto were probably getting tired of me. **

**"We know Nii-chan! You're the ace striker!"**  
**"No I'm not! I only scored twice!"**  
**"But one was from a freekick!"**

**Mikoto and that endlessly flowing brown hair of hers, and those beautiful blue eyes she had... I was really proud of her being my sister, and she was really proud of me and my team, the Eagles having won the High School Soccer championsip that afternoon. I still had my medal hanging around my neck, and the trophy we won would be put in a special place in the Clubhouse. I suddenly heard a familiar voice and an even more familiar song.**

**"That's Iwasawa Masami's My song! Quick turn the vollume up!"**

**Mom didn't listen, so I unfastened my seatbelt and climbed to the front and turned it up myself. **

**"Aww man, I love this song! This girl is a genious!"**  
**"Turn it up more! I want to hear too!"**

**Mikoto wanted to climb forth herself, but her seatbelt was too tight.**

**"Sit tight Mikoto! You too Yamato, fasten your seatbelt already!"**

**Mom's cell phone suddenly rang and she wanted to answer, but she dropped it.**

**"Damn it!"**

**She stopped and wanted to pick it up, and while she was screwing around with it, Mikoto and I saw something huge and scary coming at us.**

**"Mom! Look out!"**

**She loked up, and wanted to step on it, because we were in the middle of a crossroads, the worst place of all to stop in, but before she could react, we were hit by something, that came at us with brute force and hit us from the left side, Where my mom and Mikoto were sitting. I suddenly found myself flying out of the Car, and tossed butally at the ground. I felt my head aching like crazy and all dizzy. I looked back at the car, that was completely wrecked, and oil was leaking out of the tank.**

**"Mom... Mikoto... !"**

**I wanted to yell their names, but only a small whisper came out of me. My entire body was aching like crazy, and I felt like my strength was leaving me with every second.**

**"Mom... Miko... to..."**

**I saw some sparks coming from the engine, and the fuel caught fire. I wanted to get up and rush to their rescue, but all I coul do, was slowly crawl towards the car. It was already engulfed by flames, and Suddenly the tank let go and the entire car went flying to the moon in a huge explosion.**

**"Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!"**

* * *

I suddenly awoke, and I only noticed, that there was bright daylight outside. I had no idea, how much I have slept, or what the time could be, but it was definetly daytime. I felt something resting its light weight partially on me. As I looked down, I saw Sora partially covering me and quietly breathing. Her head on my shoulder, her arms across my chest, her right leg over mine. Her breasts were softly pushed against me, with a nice cleavage opened up as she moved a bit and her shirt became more revealing. As I looked her over, I was more and more dazed by her beauty. I had no more doubt I loved her. Her big, expressive and shining golden eyes, her cute, gentle features, her high forehead, which was only a little something that the great minds used to have. Her skin was white, but not that impossible white, like Yuuki's, but rather that gentle soft tone, that just showed that she needed some sunbath since a while now. Her hair was so beautiful and soft... As it touched my chest and covered my shoulder and partially my arm, I could smell her sweet scent.

"Have you found her?"  
"Nope, Gone and lost!"

Riku and Sayuri were talking outside the tent, and soon enough Yuuki joined them.

"Where could she be?"  
"What's up girls?"

Tamaki suddenly joined the conversation, followed by Yuta.

"Have you guys seen Sora?"  
"Wasn't she with you?"  
"She was, but she disappeared in the middle of the night... No clue where she went!"

Yuta was giggling.

"Isn't it obvious? She's with Yamato!"

Tamaki took up his usual thinking pose, where he held his left hand against his chin.

"What do you guys think they've been doing all night?"  
"Cut it out, right now!"

From what I could tell, Riku slapped Yuta over the head.

"Oww! What did I do?!"  
"You just stop talking garbage right now!"  
"Hey, I was just asking!"

Sora suddenly opened her eyes on me, and when she noticed the situation we were in, she immediately jumped up and. pulled her legs up turning away from me.

"Er.. Sorry... I mean..."  
"You're appologising as always... Don't!"

She looked at me with a strange look on her face, but her scarce soon turned to a smile. I now hushed her with my finger on my lips and snuck to the entrance, unzipped it, and I suddenly yelled:

"HEY! WHAT'S WITH THE GOSSIP AROUND HERE?!"

Everyone jumped out of surprise, and Sayuri held her hand against her chest, as if she was having a heartattack.

"Man... Yamato, don't do that! You'll get us all killed some day!"

That was really funny, and I now proceeded out of the tent, followed by Sora, who was already dressed. I still had my shorts and my t-shirt on. We soon packed up and went back to moving on. This time I was with Tamaki, who was ahead of everyone else.

"So, how was your night Casanova?"  
"Not the way you think it!"  
"Why? How do I think it?"  
"Cut it out!"

No matter how hard I wanted to resist he forced it out of me, and had to tell him all about what went on last night and in the morning as well. After I was done, he just took his usual thinking pose up, and just kept nodding.

"Well can't say I don't envy you! In fact, I'm pissed and jealous!"  
"What do you think I felt like? It was incredible!"  
"Yeah... You gotta admit! That was one really dreamy way to wake up this morning!"  
"Can't deny it, it felt great!"

It only took a good hour of walking and we reached the point when the path took a turn right, onto a narrow downhill pathway, that would lead us down from the mountains and onto the river bank. Supposably we would end up at the widest part of the river, which starts off as two small streams at the School gate. We did need to be careful at times, because it often became too narrow, and simetimes even slippery, making it hard to take a safe stance. Ultimately, we ended up at the bottom, and as Tamaki said, we were at the river. We set up camp, and while Yuta, Sayuri and I were away to get some firewood, Yuuki, Riku and Sora sat down and the aforementioned ones were curious about what happened between us.

"Come on Sora, Let's hear it, what happened?"  
"Well.. You two really made it hard to sleep in our tent... You and your snoring Riku... Not to mention you taking my blanket away Yuuki!"  
"Not that part you silly! We mean what happened with Yamato!"

Sora started blushing quite a bit.

"Well nothing serious.. We were staring at the night sky, and suddenly he..."  
"He didn't confess to you did he?"  
"Well kind of he did..."

Yuuki and Riku were like children in a candy shop, and jumped out of joy.

"But it wasn't really a confession... He just pointed out, that he thinks we're a couple!"  
"And what! You love him, he probably loves you too, what's with you?!"

Sora started blushing even more.

"Yeah but..."  
"No buts! Do you love him or not?"  
"O-of Course I do... I mean..."

No more words were needed, the two others just grabbed Sora up from her sitting position and spun her around like two crazy chickens and laughing really wildly. I actually heard this from Tamaki, who was left behind, and didn't have earplugs. Later on, as we were all back and ready, the angling began. Sayuri was a bit further up from us, as she was already much more expecenced at this than any of us. Tamaki and Yuta were also well trained fishermen, and taught Yuuki and Riku about the basics. Sora and I were a bit lower at the wider parts and tried to throw our hooks in a little deeper. I helped Sora as much as I could, and was trying to start a conversation.

"So... What did you rótalk about with the girls?"  
"You heard about us?"  
"Tamaki was here you know!"  
"Oh yeah..."

She fiddled around with her rod a bit.

"I told them everything."

That was shocking, but relaxing at the same time.

"But about this morning... Well I didn't tell them..."

What... ? But why didn't she do it?

"What? Are you ashamed of it, or what?"  
"Not like you aren't..."  
"Don't be wrong! I'm actually fond of it!"

She suddenly turned around and faced me with a surprise in her eyes.

"Really? You mean you didn't mind it?"  
"Of course not... I was really happy when I woke up the way we were... It was actually a great feeling..."

She turned away and tried to think of something completely different. Or at least I thought so. I just kicked the dust for a bit, but I couldn't stand not to finish what I started. I suddenly stepped up behind her, and hugged her like that.

"Sora... I..."

I gasped hard, and took a moment before carrying on.

"What I said before... That I think we're a couple now... About that... I really meant it!"

I gasped again, but now I couldn't stop anymore.

"I mean it Sora! I really want us to become a couple! I have feelings for you I've never had for anyone before! I... I love you Sora!"

For moments she didn't say a thing, just let her head hang. Suddenly I felt a huge tear drop on my arm I was holding her with.

"Sora... You're... Crying?"

She now trembled, but slowly turned around, breaking away from my embrace.

"No... Not really... I'm actually happy!"

And she was smiling! Smiling, with her big, beautiful golden eyes glittering and with tears frlowing down her cheeks. It was true: She actually reciprocated my feelings.

"I... I love you too Yamato!"

This time, my embrace was returned, and I could hear the others cheering on us from up the riverbank.

"Come on, what are you waiting for? A Froemal invitation maybe? Kiss her already!"

That was easy to say, but... Well I've never kissed anyone before, never mind the girl of my dreams. Sora probably read my mind, as she hung her arms around my neck, drew me closer, and her lips merged with mine for what was like an erupting wave of emotions and made my blood boil. When she let me know, she was looking at me with those eyes, that was like a challange for me to kiss her back, and I was more than willing to fulfill her others just cheered on and we went on for what seemed like an eternity, me even lfting her up in my arm from the ground.

That afternoon when we returned to school, we were already holding hands, and as people kept waving at us, we waved them back, and I was dead set on never letting her hand go ever again! I wanted to dedicate my every moment for her from now on.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5.**

**Some Secrets Revealed**

It was that eerie feeling, that no matter how much the demons were a nuisence to all of us, and the peaceful days were really good, after a while, things have started getting really boring. After some time, people started organising soccer games and all kinds of other activities only to keep themselves occupied. I myself actually joined in sometimes, but let the others have all the glory they wanted, usually playing in the back or as a goalie. Sora and my friends however had me busy all the time. Sora even went as far as to move into my room, along with all her belongings. Tamaki and Yuta helped me with moving her all over including her bed, which we brought together with mine. It was more like an actual couple, and Tamaki often asked us, when we get married yet. It was a really funny thing to think of, but then again, I've been thinking about actually sealing our relationship for real. I had no idea about how Sora was thinking about this, so I never brought it up. There were days though, when I was left alone, and had noone to keep me company. I got used to this thing back in the early days, so it was nothing impossible. I just went on a round around school to find something fun to do. Suddenly I saw a very familiar face exit the girls dorm, closely followed by a girl in civilian clothes. I couldn't tell exactly whether she was human, or NPC, but had little time to ponder.

"Leave me alone!"  
"But Tamaki-kun... !"

Tamaki tore his hand out of the girl's and tried to just walk away from her, but the girl grabbed him again.

"For God's sake Rika!"

Tamaki tore his hand out of hers again, and pushed her away.

"I think I told you about a million times! Leave me alone!"

Rika, I think that was her name, turned away and ran just past me. I could smell the sweet smell of her fruit scented perfume.

"What was that all about?"

I now walked over to Tamaki who was curved over at the nearest wall. I tapped his shoulder to make him notice me, and as he looked up at me, I saw tears in his eyes.

"Tamaki, are you alright? What was that just now?"

He probably realised, that I saw them.

"Nothing really... Just an unbearable little NPC girl, that's all... "

He now wiped his tears away and stood up.

"Wait.. NPC? For real?"  
"Yeah, what's so surprising about that?"

Well to tell the least, I was shocked by the fact that he talked about her just like that. That NPC girl, as he called her was crying when she ran away.

"What did you do to her?"  
"Nothing! I just told her to leave me alone!"

Tamaki was obviously in no mood for talking and I felt like I was better off leaving him alone. I just went on to look for this Rika, as he called her, and to no surprise, found her at the fountain, and to even more surprise she was still crying.

"Hey! You okay?"

She looked up at me with those creepy empty eyes of hers, but her face was talkative: She was suffering, and that she was bad. She was actually kind of cute: Shoulder length red hair, bright brown eyes and a slightly oval face that ended in a pointy little chin. I sat down next to her and waited for her to stop crying. When she finally calmed down, she let her head hang and her hands were resting in her lap.

"Did he send you?"  
"No.. I actually came by myself."

She nodded, and I couldn't help, but feel sorry for her. She wasn't like other NPCs: She didn't smile and for almost half an hour she cried her eyes out.

"You're Rika, right?"  
"Yes I am! Do you want something?"

I wasn't sure of what to say, but I had to answer something.

"You're..."  
"Yes, I'm an NPC..."

Wait... What?

"What... How... I..."

She just looked at me.

"I know it's creepy, but I know that fact exactly... I'm afraid, Tamaki-kun doesn't love me anymore because of that."

I sure made wide eyes at that.

"Is that why you were arguing?"  
"Yes..."

I was stunned by that fact. She had that monotone voice and all, but what she said made sense and the way she spoke was all clear. I felt sorry for her, for she was really suffering and if there was something in her voice, then it was regret... The same as what I usually heard from Tamaki's.

"Look... If I can help you with anything... "  
"If it's possible, would you mind asking Misaki, if I'm allowed to meet her?"

I sure had no idea, what she wanted with that, but I guess she had her reason.

"Alright, I'll try!"  
"Thanks! I appreciate it."

I up and left her, but not before patting her shoulder a bit. She was still down in the dumps, but I guess she' be fine after a bit. I then went back to look for Tamaki, who was sitting in the cafeteria, drinking whiskey as usual.

"Are you in more of a mood for talking?"  
"Not really!"

He took a good deep sip out of his bottle and slammed it down on the table, which could've easily cracked it up if he didn't watch it.

"Damn this crap! I need something a bit stronger!"  
"That wouldn't help anything would it?"  
"It might.. Help me forget!"

I needed to take the conversation to Rika again.

"What's up with Rika? Why aren't you just willing to talk to her at all?"  
"So you talked to her?"  
"Of course I did! She's suffering because of you!"

Tamaki drank again and he just shook his head.

"Why do you question me about it? It's non of your business!"  
"It is, if it's about my best friend!"

He shook his head again.

"I'm not in the mood bro!"  
"It would take a bit off of your chest if you did!"

He gasped hard and tried to take it slow.

"You did notice her being a little different than other NPCs, right?"  
"A little Different? She cried her eyes out... Over half an hour long... Didn't you say NPCs usually take about 3-5 minutes to calm down and get back to normal... As much as they can be normal... ?"

He nodded.

"I did... But Rika isn't just your ordinary NPC..."  
"But what's s special about her?"  
"Look..."

He drank the rest of the bottle and threw the empty bottle away.

"You'd need to know a bit about me, if you want to understand this!"  
"You know I care about everyone around me! You did see, how much easier it is for Riku and Yuta right?"

He finally nodded.

"Alright then! But you better listen carefully, because I'm only telling you this once!"

* * *

_Tamaki's POV_

**So here it is: The story of my life in some short terms.**

**You know, when I was alive, I had a really average life. I had average grades, average intelligence, went to average schools and when I finally started working, I took an average electrician job in Kyoto. I had to go to work from a small village every day, and had to take a train to get there. **

**It was there, I met my love of my life. She was always sitting across from me, and reading books about Medicine. I guess she was studying to become a doctor. I was 31 years old, she was 20, and she was beautiful. Every single day I sat across from her and watched her. She never took a peek at me even once, but I fell in love with her without asking any questions.**

**"I'll do it today! I'll talk to her!"**

**That was my plan for the day, after an entire year, as I really wanted to get to know more about her now. This time however, the entire Train was overcrouded and we couldn't get to a sitting place. We were both standing not too far from each other, but as I tried to get close to her, new passangers boarded and we got dragged apart. As I got close to her again, it happened. A disaster struck and everything started spinning around with me. It wasn't that I was sick, the entire train started spinning around its horizontal axle and screaming and fear was all that filled the air. People flying from one end of the wagon to the other other crashing and flying out of windows and getting crushed under the wagon itself, or getting crushed to death when hitting the iron bars over and over again. Sometime Debris went flying across the wagon on and back, and people getting crushed and screaming their last breath out was all that I could hear and see. I couldn't stand the smell and the feeling of death around me and I passed out.**

**The next thing I remember was me waking up to being still alive but my entire body aching in horrid pain. My abdomen was aching the worst, and it was the worst of it all, as I looked down, a sharp piece of a steel beam was sticking out of the left bottom part. My back had the same sensation and as I tried to tap at that part, I screaed in pain. The tip of the beam was sticking out of my back there. My right arm was broken and unfunctionate, and a bunch of motionless corpses were piled up on top of me. With only one arm I somehow pushed them off me, and now I noticed why I couldn't move my legs. Both were crushed and stuck under a bench, that was somehow flipped over and landed on me. I couldn't move because of it.**

**"Hello! Is anyone still alive?!"**

**I didn't expect any answers, but suddenly heard a small whisper.**

**"Me... I'm still alive..."**

**I looked to my right and saw her: She wa lying with her face towards me, and blood was slowly flowing down her face from a not too bad, but still nasty wound.**

**"You okay... ?"**

**She probably didn't know where my voice was coming from.**

**"Where are you?"**

**She was whispering, which was obviously due to the weight that was resting on her.**

**"Here! I'm here! Look, I'm waving my hand at you!"**

**I waved my left at her and she returned it faintly smiling.**

**"I'm coming over to you!"**

**She crawled out of the pile of debris and over to me, and forced herself up to a sitting position, and took a professional look at me and had a really faint look in her eyes. **

**"Dear god... You're in the worst shape possible!"**  
**"It's okay, my belly doesn't hurt anymore... Besides most of the blood isn't mine!"**

**I tried to laugh, but it hurt so bad, I started screaming instead.**

**"I'm sorry... Please calm down, it only gets worse if you start panicking!"**

**How did she notice my slight panic? Never mind that! She grabbed my left hand and went back to her lying position. For a while she just stared at me, before speaking up in realisation.**

**"Hey... Aren't you the same guy, who was always sitting across from me?"**  
**"I am... Strange that you notice... You never even looked at me!"**  
**"I did... When you were sleeping... "**

**She smiled at me and I felt a bit comforted by that smile of hers.**

**"You always slept in while on your way home, and I got a chance to take a look at you! Besides, you were watching me yourself."**  
**"True!"**

**She smiled again.**

**"I'm Tamaki... Kurogaki Tamaki... "**  
**"I'm Tehiro Yuriko... But my friends call me Rika!"**

**Rika... a cute name. I couldn't shake hands with her but returned her friendly smile. For a bit we were just lying there idly, and I felt my strength slowly fading. I needed to tell her the truth. I turned to her and I noticed that she was really pale.**

**"Rika... What's wrong? You look like a ghost!"**  
**"I... I think I have severe internal injuries... I feel like I'm not going to last much longer..."**

**I nodded. She was really faint, and her voice was fainter every second. I had to tell her now or never.**

**"Rika... May I tell you something?"**  
**"Sure.. Go on!"**

**I took a deep breath nad spilled it as fast as I could.**

**"Over the course of the last year, I've been watching you all the time... You, a beautiful young girl, studying medicine and aiming to become a doctor... I ... I think I fell in love with you Rika... "**  
**"Really... ? Wow..."**

**She now forced herself up and came closer to me, giving me a slight kiss on the cheeks, and whispering.**

**"Strange... But I also... Grew to... Like you... Or even more..."**

**Those were her last words as she then collapsed back to the ground, her eyes stuck up, her grip on my hand completely loose and suddenly dropping onto the ground. **

**"Rika... Rika..."**

**She was motionless and wasn't breathing anymore. She passed away after those last few words. I could feel a big tear drop from my face. I suddenly coughed and as I looked at my hand, there was a bloodstain in on it, that came from inside me.**

**"Damn... It looks like I'm destined to die in a hell hole like this... I... I..."**

**My strength started to fade more and more and my last words became a blur. I just closed my eyes and felt life slowly fading from me, and soon enough it all turned to silence and nothingness.**

**When I finally awoke, I felt a light breeze overrunning me, and someone was petting my face with her silky hands. I opened my eyes to find Rika sitting above, with my head in her lap. **

**"Morning Sleep head!"**  
**"Rika... ! Where.. Where are we?"**

**I looked around and found myself in this school. I sat up and shook my head.**

**"So... We're dead, right?"**  
**"Yes, I guess so! And this must be heaven I guess... Or not... Maybe Prugatory!"**

**She said that without any real concern in her voice.**

**"Though, come to think of it... I guess since we're buddhists, this is purgatory... And from here it's the light next... And the new life, right?"**

**I just smiled at her. She sure was wise. I was kind of embarrased by what I told her before, and wanted to talk it out. **

**"Look Rika... What I just said... I mean back when we were still alive... I..."**

**She just grabbed me and before I could say another word, se kissed me, and as her lips parted from mine, she rested her forehead against mine and while smiling she said:**

**"Now that we have a chance, why not try and fulfill this love of ours?"**

**She then grabbed my hand and with that we were most likely a couple. I never wanted to let it go... But...**

* * *

_Yamato's POV_

"The great Kyoto Train disaster... Horrible... I remember hearing about it on the news myself."

Hearing Tamaki's story was really saddening.

"So... What happened to Rika then?"  
"She was the first victim of the Demon attacks."

Horrible thing to hear, but I was still curious about one more thing,

"But what's so special about her? What makes her different than other NPCs?"  
"I know this may be hard to believe... But she has something the NPCs don't. While other NPCs have no soul or emotions... Rika does... She has a heart full of love!"

I made wide eyes at that.

"What do you mean?"  
"I mean, that her heart is, what keeps her like this! She was in love, when she was caught and she maintained most of her personality because of that!"

That was barely plausible.

"Look Tamaki, I understand, that you still love her, but that is impossible! Even if that would be possible..."  
"You see, that is why I never wanted to tell you! You'd never understand!"

He freaked out and I just sat back down. This was horrible to think of and I wanted nothing more, than to have his back and be wiser than him for once.

"Look Tamaki... I don't know exactly what goes down inside you, but I'll tell you this: If you still love her so much, then try a different approach!"  
"What do you mean?"  
"I mean, that if you still love her, then you should try and get to know her, and learn to ove her the way she is! She loves you, and I'm sure as hell, you love her yourself! Try to love this Rika too!"

He let his head hang for a bit, and I was afraid he'd get up and punch me for my suggestionm when:

"There you are Tamaki-kun!"

The voice came from behind us, and as we both looked that way, we saw Rika. The way she called him -kun was so heart warming, that it brought tears in my eyes. Tamaki stood and for a bit just let his head hang pondering and I could hear him mumble:

"Get to know her again... Learn to love her the way she is..."

Suddenly he raised his head and ran up to Rika, grabbed her, lifted her up in the air and spun her around.

"I love you Rika! I still do!"

That was all he could say, and he was crying, but this time out of joy. I wiped some tears away and walked out to leave them to their happiness.

"Yamato! I need to talk to you!"

Hearing my name from the left, I turned to see Sayuri emerge from the shadows. She was kind of distancing herself from us since days now and only appeared now.

"Sayuri? What can I do for you?"  
"Just come with me!"

She lead me to her own room and there we sat down, with her offering me some smokes.

"Alright, let's hear it, what happened between you and the three girls this time?"  
"How do you know what I want to talk to you about?"  
"You are my friend you know! I know this much about you by now!"

She sighed and took a deep sip out of her smoker.

"So you know me this well now? Great!"

She lit the next one before carrying on.

"So you want to know everything about usm right?"  
"Yeah, I guess so!"  
"Okay then, I'll tell you my story, but I won't promise it to be as cute and cuddly as Tamaki's."

So she outheard us.

"Alright, I'm all ears!"

* * *

_Sayuri's POV_

**Have you ever dreamed about participating in the Olympic games? Well I have.**

**I may not look like it, but I was a gymnast back when I was alive. My mother was my first trainer and manager, but she fell ill when I turned 12. Her best friend and colleague took over for her and was my mentor for the next 5 years. When I finally recieved the olypmic quota I longed for so much, my first trip lead me to my mother, who was bedridden in hospital. **

**"I'm proud of you honey!"**

**Mother said that with tears in her eyes. She was really strange, as if she wasn't clearly aware of the world around her, but she seemed to be happy, and that was all that mattered to me. One month later I was off to Beijing, and I was sad, because the doctor didn't allow me to properly say goodbye to mom. **

**"But I... "**  
**"Don't worry, I'll forward your regards to her!"**

**The doctor patted my shoulder, and went back to work. So it was my sister, Hayuka, who took me to the airport, and bid me farewell. She was the one to take care of me since long years now, take me to school and care for me at all time. We finally parted after a long and warm hug.**

**"Sayuri! Phone call for you!"**

**We only settled down in our rooms in the olypmpic village, when I was called to a long distance call from Japan. When I answered, it was Hayuka, and she was crying.**

**"Hayuka? What happened, what's wrong with you?"**

**Hayuka only came to words really hardly.**

**"Sayuri... Mom... Mom is..."**  
**"What... ? What's with mom? She isn't... ?"**  
**"Mom... She... She..."**

**She burst into crying, so bad even that I could tell exactly what happened.**

**"She... Died... ?"**

**I dropped the phone and covering my ears I ran off screaming:**

**"Nooo! Not this! Anything but mother... !"**

**I just kept running, running wherever I could, just away from the horrible news. I suddenly found myself in the streets and the entire world was spinning arond with me. When I finally snapped out of it, I only saw a bus coming straight at me, but I had no chance to react as it was already in point blank distance.**

* * *

_Yamato's POV_

"I see... The Young Japanese Gymnast dies in a tragic accident... I remember the news from the papers."  
"Hold on! Since when do you remember anything even?"

Of course I forgot to tell anyone about this small fact.

"Well... That morning when I awoke with Sora in my Arms basically... I started remembering everything... Slow but steady..."

She nodded.

"I see.. Sounds interresting..."  
"Yeah... So what does this have to do with the three girls again?"  
"Just that when I got here, they were the ones to accept me in and take care of me... So much happened and they always cared for me... And now..."

She had tears in her eyes. These memories she brought up were obviously not easy to take.

"I see... And have you reconsidered what I told Tamaki?"

She looked at me with a surprised expression.

"I... Well... You mean to try and get to know this side of theirs too, and try to love them like this too?"

She went into pondering for a bit. I carried on:

"Try to learn what their current selves are like and what's more important: Follow them! Play with them! Be the one to take them under your wings, like they have with you!"

She didn't say a thing, so I wanted to walk away, but suddenly she grabbed my hand and held me back.

"Thank you!"

I just nodded and wanted to get on my way to let Misaki know about Rika's request when suddenly I saw Sora, Yuuki and Riku returning from wherever they were. Of course I greeted her with the usual kiss, but also hugged her tight for I was really glad she was just fine as she was.

"What's wrong with you?"  
"Nothing really, I just had a quite strange day with a lot of interresting conversations. I'll tell you later!"  
"Right! Wanna come and have dinner with us?"  
"Maybe later... I have a small thing to take care of... So I'll be joining you soon enough!"

She nodded and left me to take care of my business. I was just about to enter the office building, when I saw Kanna, Miko and Himiko coming from somewhere around the dorms, and Sayuri approaching them from other way. She had a ball in her hands and she stood in front of them, clearly talking to them in an apologetic manner, and all turned right when they all embraced in a warm hug and Sayuri waved at me with the tears of joy in her eyes. I waved back and entered the building. I just saw Tamaki and Rika enter Misaki's office and had just enough time to slip in.

"And what are you guys doing here?"

Our appearence wasn't a surprise to her, but for Rika, well that was a different case.

"Misaki, Rika here would like a word with you!"  
"An NPC? What could she want with me?"

It was highly unlikely that an NPC entered this office.

"I'm here to offer you my sincere assistance!"

Rika stepped forward and half bowed. Misaki just stared at the two of us, and had that really curious look on her, but when she saw, that we weren't against that, she finally nodded.

"Leave us alone please!"

That was meant for us. Tamaki and I took our exit and Tamaki sat down outside to wait for Rika as long as he needed to. I just took off to rejoin with Sora and the others.


End file.
